To the Editor:

We never fully realize the influence we have on others. Rodney Bryan Elble — Mr. Elble as I knew him — was one such person [“Obituary: Rodney Bryan Elble,” The Altamont Enterprise, June 30, 2025].

As we go through life, different people will know us in different circumstances, in different capacities, at different times. I knew him as one of my high school teachers at Bristol County Agricultural High School, in Dighton, Massachusetts. He taught Earth Science and Physics. He was a great teacher — one of many I had there.

Aggie School (as it’s known) was and is a different kind of learning environment. Along with our academic curriculum, we also had our agricultural curriculum, which included (at that time) a working dairy herd, chickens, turkeys, hogs and sheep, greenhouses, fields, an apple orchard, and large woodworking/carpentry and mechanical shops.

And Mr. Elble fit right in.

As part of the Aggie School curriculum (at that time), we had to have summer jobs. I was an Agricultural Mechanics major; that summer, I was working for my father in a metal fabrication job shop.

One day, I’m operating a radial arm drill press (that at that time was over 60 years old), and I look up and I see Mr. Elble (the teachers would go out and verify that the students were indeed working). My father came over, I made the introduction, and they proceeded to converse — I think they were both good at that! Mr. Elble seemed satisfied that I was fulfilling my curriculum, and he went on his way (in his yellowish Subaru).

There are a couple of things I want those that were closest to him to know:

— 1. He was appreciated; and

— 2. He was a positive influence on a lot of young lives.

Mr. Elble, rest in peace.

Mark Mutz

Bakersfield, California

Editor’s note: Mark Mutz was in the Bristol County Agricultural High School Class of 1981.